The following writings contain different segments about the concept of time. To best describe certain feelings and thoughts concerning my ideas and work I have used poetry and short stories in a prosaic manner. I also felt it necessary to include some historic facts about the history of time and its measuring devices.

Over the course of the past ten years, both studying and teaching Voice & Speech for the Actor, I have become frustrated with the status quo of so called 'standard speech'. The two dialects that I have studied in depth are Edith Skinner's 'American Classical Stage Standard' and Kenneth Crannell's 'Career Speech'. I have found something lacking in both the Skinner dialect and Crannell's 'Career Speech'. Yet, I believe that each has a strength from which the other could benefit. The specificity of the Skinner dialect makes 'American Classical Stage Standard' not only easy to learn but also an excellent tool in ear training. The problem with this dialect is that before its artificial creation, it did not exist in the American English language. Additionally, 'American Classical Stage Standard' is not appropriate for theatrical works in a contemporary setting. Conversely, the 'standards' that have been formed in reaction to Skinner's method, such as Crannell's 'Career Speech', are rooted in American English Speech. But since Crannell's 'Career Speech' relies heavily on observation, the resulting paradigm avoids specificity because in the real world not everyone speaks in the same way. The dialect that I am setting forth in this project is my attempt to combine the Skinner dialect and Crannell's 'Career Speech' to create a dialect that is contemporary but non-geographic specific in sound. My American Actor's dialect will be simple and efficient to learn and teach and will provide the student with a base dialect for further study in voice and speech for the stage and for contemporary American theatrical works set post 1980 if there is no dialect called for in the script or if the director chooses not to include dialect work in that specific production.

This thesis project explores repurposing a hydroelectric plant along Richmond Virginia's Canal Walk. The building has been redesigned to create a community-oriented space programmed as an indoor park, event venue space, and cafe. Throughout this thesis, it became important to create private niches within a public space while creating a flexible public venue that accommodates a variety of activities. Through a variety of spaces that offer users options, a flexible public venue is creating, yielding a community-oriented environment that reconnects local with the site.

This thesis provides an account of the events of the first ten years of Printed Matter, Inc., a distribution center for artists’ books established in New York City in 1976. Included are descriptions of the individuals who formed Printed Matter’s first board, their objectives, books published by Printed Matter, and the windows installation program. This thesis also describes challenges the board members faced, including lack of organization, difficulty cultivating a broad public audience, and inadequate income. In addition, it recounts the gradual streamlining of business practices, and the realignment of goals and expectations for the genre as board members accepted the fact of a limited audience for artists’ books. The conclusion offers a brief summary and a look at Printed Matter, Inc.’s current operations.

The FBI is the most recognized law enforcement entity in the world. During its nearly 100-year history, the Bureau has been involved in many controversies, most as a result of straying from its stated mission to investigate violations of federal law. This survey is based on personal papers of the former head of the Richmond Bureau, John Edward Lawler. Fortunately for historians, these files, many of which exist nowhere else in the agency's archives, open a window into the operational methods and investigative techniques of FBI agents. An examination of John Lawler's career provides insight into the conduct of field agents and Agents in Charge of field bureaus during the 1940s.

I often think of life as a tight rope stretching across an expanse. Our inner strength enables us to walk forward across it. When this fails us, we fall. But in those moments when we prevail, we soar and float as though weightless and timeless. As a gymnast I learned that control of one's insecurities results in a powerful and balanced presence of body. Give into them and the body becomes uncertain and clumsy. Rarely is life this transparent. Many forms of tension manifest themselves in physical, spiritual, and emotional unrest. How does the physical contour of the skin reflect the soul of a material body? Through the use of tension and balance, and with the aid of transparency, translucency, and opacity I alter the perception of surface, form, internal and external space. My work is a comment on the flux of my emotions and attitude towards daily life.

This thesis explores the development of an interdisciplinary design incubator and community business center in Richmond, Virginia through the adaptive reuse of a retired, historic school building. In contrast to the deteriorating conditions of Patrick Henry School, renewed growth abounds in its extraordinary site surroundings—the 105 acres of Forest Hill Park, which serves as the virtual backyard of the school building. This dualism provided a prime opportunity for discovering the design possibilities in connecting a built space to its physical surroundings and for giving meaningful new life to an abandoned space.

I am interested in the dual meaning of pattern. Pattern is a design format used for decoration. By introducing certain images into patterns, they have the ability to give meaning or messages. The repetition of a certain image emphasizes importance to a particular idea or issue. I embroider pattern designs onto pre-manufactured clothing pattern pieces as a response to things in society that I find absurd. This body of work focuses on female iconography. The delicate nature of these materials lends themselves to feminine associations. Embroidery, which is stereotypically associated with women's work, is used to play on these clichés.Patterns also are instructions. The original intent for these pattern pieces was to construct a wearable garment. I am using these specifically shaped pieces to create flat representational images on the wall to point to the "roles" that people undertake consciously or unconsciously in their lives.

The purpose of this thesis is to detail my first professional costume design job after my unofficial graduation in May 2008. This thesis will serve primarily as a design thesis, and will concentrate the majority of its efforts in the presentation of a final, original costume design for a realized production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as produced by Duke University. During the course of this presentation, I will seek to detail my own design process and the inspiration and research I used to achieve my goal. I will also discuss the execution of the design, problems that arose within, and my interactions with the shop, staff, and other members of the production team before summarizing my experience and discussing what I learned from the project, and what I took away from it personally.

This thesis investigates creative expression through needlework by wealthy or elite women in the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century, focusing on women in the United States South. This inquiry begins in broad terms and proceeds to the close examination of one particular needlework sampler held in the collection of the Valentine Richmond History Center. The first chapter uses prescriptive literature popular in the eighteenth century to establish the restrictive, obedient, and subservient expectations for women’s behavior. The second chapter explores the reasons that the same books that prohibited many forms of pleasure promoted needlework as an acceptable activity for women. This chapter addresses the practical aspect of needlework, the presence and significance of textiles in the home, and the ways needlework expressed creativity. The final chapter analyzes a needlework sampler stitched in 1812, connecting it both with the themes introduced in the first two chapters and a wider range of issues.